Congratulations Are In Order

So, over the weekend GAMA (the 'Game Manufacturers' Association') handed out the Origins Awards (so called because they're presented at Origins, the yearly gaming convention overseen by GAMA). The awards tend to seesaw back and forth between popular games that define the genre (those most people play and that most of the industry talent works on) OR to small, quirky, innovative games (with minuscule audiences but cutting-edge potential), depending on who's writing the rules that particular year. But despite their contentious history, the awards actually reward outstanding achievement more often than we have any right to expect.

This weekend marked one of those times. For the first time ever, the same person won both the Non-Fiction and the Fiction awards in the best book category:


Non-Fiction Publication of the Year
Hobby Games: The 100 Best
Published by Green Ronin
Edited by James Lowder

Fiction Publication of the Year
Astounding Hero Tales
Published by Hero Games
Edited by James Lowder


Both are worthy winners, and both faced strong opposition (the Fiction title beat out a DragonLance novel by Hickman & Weis, as well as a Forgotten Realms/Drizzt novel by Bob Salvatore, among others). I'm particularly pleased to see the 100 BEST HOBBY GAMES book win, since I'm a contributor (one of one hundred). I would have been pleased to see it win in any case, since it's an imminently readable book, full of good things, where a hundred industry professionals tell you about a game they like and why.

So, congratulations to Jim on getting a pair of statuettes to reward his labors. Well done!

--John R.

current audiobook: JONATHAN STRANGE & MR. NORRELL